Ana defeated by Stephens

Ana has been eliminated from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells following a 7-6(3), 6-4 defeat against American Sloane Stephens in the third round. The 26-year-old’s performance was filled with ups and downs as she lacked consistency on the key points, converting just three out of her 14 break opportunities.

The quality the pair displayed during the opening set was not one you would expect from two top-20 ranked players. It was a festival of unforced errors – a combined 50 throughout the set – and the exchanges only sporadically reached five strokes. One of the few highlights was Ana’s successful between-the-legs shot in the seventh game, and although she didn’t manage to eventually win the point, it brought a smile to her face and lifted the crowd.

Indeed, near the end of the set, there were significant improvements considering the level of play and the opening set had a logical outcome; a tiebreak.

Ana kept pace with the world No.18 until 3-3, but two unforced errors from the former world No.1's racket and two classy winners from Stephens were fatal for Ana in the end.

The story at the beginning the second set was very different. The 26-year-old was brilliant with her forehand, served pretty well and looked in fine form at the net, until things turned around in the seventh game.

Holding a 4-2 lead at that moment, the 11th seed earned three chances to go up a double break but she was unable to take advantage of the situation.

Similarly, in the following game Ana surrendered a comfortable 40-15 lead, dropping all of the next four points to be broken out of the blue. Stephens added a love game shortly after to put pressure on Ana’s next service game.

The American was now faultless and completed the turnaround on her fourth match point, reeling off four games to clinch victory in one hour and 42 minutes.

Ana's next tournament is the Sony Open Tennis, which begins in Miami next week.